Matthew Tully: Legislating, kooky-style, in the Indiana Senate

Feb. 28, 2013

Exterior of the Indiana Statehouse looking from the south lawn. / The Star file photo

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Apparently, as the first half of the state legislative session was concluding this week, the Indiana Senate wanted to do one last thing to solidify its standing as the nutty chamber.

And, so, the Senate passed a resolution Tuesday calling for a U.S. Constitutional Convention, a revolt of sorts over the federal government’s alleged overreach on issues from health care to guns. Now, this would be as unprecedented as it is fantastical, but Senate President David Long hopes 33 other states will pass similar resolutions and force a rewrite of parts of the federal constitution.

Oh, dear.

Some days it’s hard to admit I’m a Hoosier. Those days are much more frequent when the state legislature is in session and when senators are given a platform to, say, obsess over cursive writing or the proper singing of the national anthem. Or, in Long’s case, to appease some tea party types by turning the Senate floor into a legislative version of the Glenn Beck show.

“I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to start something,” Long said during a news conference Wednesday, adding that he thinks the resolution will “create a brush fire out there” in other states.

As black helicopters apparently hovered above the Statehouse, Long railed about the federal government’s history of sticking its nose into the business of the states. (This came just days after his state Senate, I should note, passed a bill rewriting Marion County’s governance structure over the loud objections of many locals.)

Ultimately, Long’s resolution seems clearly aimed at securing his status among those on the far, far, far right who fear the federal government is on the verge of confiscating all of our guns and implanting tracking chips in all of our bodies.

“This is not something that’s kooky,” Long said.

But here are two thoughts about that. First, he offered that comment unsolicited, a sign that he knows the idea is indeed kooky. Second, well, the idea is kooky.

It’s kind of sad to see Long stooping to this level. He’s always seemed quite reasonable, with his calm demeanor and rationally conservative agendas. But his caucus has shifted hard to the right in recent years and this smells of a desperate attempt to secure his power – something that might have become necessary after he spiked several bills earlier this year that he determined were wildly unconstitutional.

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So there he goes, a mild-mannered man from Fort Wayne trying his best to sound unreasonable. And while there are plenty of fair questions to raise about the scope of the federal government’s reach, the complaints Long actually lodged Wednesday when calling for a constitutional convention were as weak as the overall idea is lame-brained.

For instance, in complaining about unfunded mandates he blasted the feds for demanding a while back that Indiana join other states in lowering the threshold for what constitutes drunken driving.

“We would have done it,” Long huffed, referring to the current 0.08 standard. “We were heading there.”

Yeah, but Indiana was heading there at its typical glacial pace and the feds simply forced the state to hurry things along. Is that really your best evidence, Sen. Long – a complaint about the big, bad federal government’s desire to see fewer people die in drunken-driving accidents?

Next, Long got flustered when he was forced to admit that he’d quickly gaveled the Senate into and out of session Wednesday solely so senators would not have to pay federal taxes on the per-diem cash they’ll receive during the current mid-session recess. Hoping to deflect criticism of a tax dodge that only a CPA could understand, he complained some more about the federal government, focusing this time on IRS rules regarding the taxation of per diem.

“I think it’s an overreach,” he said. “I think we can decide how to handle our legislature.”